Oklahoma has opened its first new family planning clinic since 1974. But the Trust Women South Wind Women's Center, which saw its first patients Friday, is the result of diminishing reproductive rights in the Midwest.
Originally opened in 2013 in neighboring Kansas, Trust Women was forced out of the state due to its tightening abortion-access laws.
"If you look at this part of the country, there is a lack of access to reproductive health care, and frankly a lack of access to health care across the board," Julie Burkhart, Trust Women's founder and CEO, told The Associated Press. "It's hard for women who want to give birth to find Ob/Gyns to help them deliver their babies."
According to the Guttmacher Institute, as of December 2015, Kansas state law required women seeking abortions to first undergo counseling, submit to a 24-hour waiting period, and have an ultrasound.
State health plans offered under the Affordable Care Act can only cover abortion when the woman’s life is endangered. Private insurance policies also only cover abortion when the woman's life is in danger, unless an "optional rider is purchased at an additional cost."
In addition, 98% of counties in Kansas, which are home to 74% of the state's female population, had no abortion clinics as of 2011.
The Trust Women relocation to Oklahoma City was met with criticism from anti-choice activists. A spokesperson for the Holy Innocents Foundation of Oklahoma told the AP that the organization "grieved" at the news of the opening.
Burkhart said Oklahoma City was the largest metropolitan area in the United States without an abortion provider — until Friday, that is.
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